Shirt and Shoes Not Required
by Rolling Tomorrow
Summary: On the rare occasion time allowed, Richard and Asbel would spend a weekend together away from the city to catch up. After an unplanned run in with a violent peepit that sent Asbel tumbling down a hill, this trip didn't go exactly as planned.
There were certain words that no one expected to come out of a king's mouth.

Asbel was making a distinct point to keep his expression as blank as possible when he heard _these_ particular words come out of Richard's mouth, but it was difficult. He didn't want to overreact and seem foolish, but Richard's request was making that exceedingly difficult.

"Asbel, are you even listening to me?" he asked, sounding slightly exasperated.

"Y-yeah!" he said, inwardly cursing his stutter. "It's just-"

Richard shook his head and put one finger over Asbel's mouth, silencing him.

"You heard me," Richard said, quite authoritatively. "Take. It. Off."

Hearing it exaggerated and drawn out so much just made Asbel's face redden even more. He _sincerely_ hoped that the guards posted outside couldn't hear their conversation. He shook his head and stepped back, trotting over to the door of the cabin. He was most eager to turn away from his friend since his face was betraying his embarrassment, but that was another matter. The floorboards creaked beneath his feet rather loudly, but such was to be expected from such an old shack outside of the capital. This weekend away from the city was not exactly going as Asbel had planned.

"It's fine, really!" Asbel said as he reached the door. "I'll just walk over to the stream."

Richard followed after him. "But you wear nothing but white."

"It's totally fine," Asbel said as he very quickly grabbed the door handle.

"It's going to get stained permanently if you leave that mess on it for that long."

Richard sighed as he stepped to the side of Asbel and dropped his hand down on Asbel's wrist. Richard's expression was sterner than usual – it was almost amusing, since this kingly, strict side only surfaced around Asbel when it was over something trivial.

"I don't mind, I've got plenty of clothes," Asbel said with a shrug.

"You're covered in dirt, monster blood, and there's even peepit feathers stuck to your coat," he said disagreeably. "The stream isn't _that_ nearby."

"It's just a short walk! I'll be back in a couple minutes."

"You smell," Richard said, rather bluntly.

"Which is why the stream is a great idea."

Quite stubbornly, Richard grabbed the collar of Asbel's coat and started pulling it off from the top. Asbel let go of the door handle as he started to step away, but Richard was _surprisingly_ good at this and already had the coat off of his shoulders and restricting the movement of his arms.

"Richard!"

"There's a perfectly good tub here for bathing, the servants even prepped a second one for washing clothes," he said matter-of-factly. "It's much more practical than going to the stream."

 _And it's also just set apart from the main area of the cabin with a privacy screen!_ Asbel thought in dismay as he glanced over at the offending screen. Asbel had a perfectly solid plan of making an excuse to go get firewood when Richard took his bath. Moreover, he hadn't really planned to fall down a hill with an enemy he'd stabbed and end up covered head to toe in dirt, blood, and a few peepit feathers. Before he could respond, Richard gave his coat another pull and got it off completely.

Which left – _oh crap_ , Asbel thought as Richard reached for the top button on his shirt. He undid the first button in the blink of an eye and grabbed the bottom hem of his shirt, getting it halfway up his torso before Asbel gave in.

"Okay, okay!" Asbel said, holding his hands up in surrender.

Richard paused his mission to undress him. "You're giving in to common sense?"

"Right, sure," he mumbled, waiting for Richard to let go of his shirt.

"Well, alright then," Richard said cheerfully.

Asbel expected him to _finally_ let go, but instead Richard just took it upon himself to finish what he started and try to pull Asbel's shirt off. Asbel panicked and automatically flailed his arms, making it difficult to finish the task. He was almost glad to be tangled in the blue fabric, since it made it harder for Richard to see just how red his face had become. It took a few moments before Asbel realized he was just prolonging this, thus making it worse, before he just gave up and let him pull it off successfully.

"Well, off to the bath with you," Richard said, twirling his prize – the shirt – around his finger. "Doesn't it feel better to have such dirty clothes off of you?"

"I suppose," he mumbled, hastily making his way over to the privacy screen.

He didn't want to think about how clear his silhouette was through it. Moreover, he definitely didn't want to think about later and how visible Ri-

 _No,_ he thought as he finished getting undressed behind the privacy of the screen. _I'm not even thinking about that right now._


End file.
